Fenimore Art Museum Announces 2019 Exhibition Season

Fenimore offers a wide-ranging selection of exhibitions in 2019 featuring rock and roll photography, Abstract Expressionism, and children’s book illustrations.

Summer exhibition to feature iconic photographs of well-known rock stars from the 1980s and 90s.

(COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.)—Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, has announced its 2019 exhibition schedule, on view April 2–December 31. A wide selection of offerings run the gamut of artistic tastes. Visitors will find iconic photographs of popular rock stars from the 1980s and 90s, Mo Willems’s original illustrations from all twenty-five Elephant and Piggie books, paintings by the women of the Abstract Expressionist movement, works of 19th-century artist William Sidney Mount, and much more.

Visitors to Fenimore will again have the opportunity to see an expanded exhibition featuring the original handwritten letters that fueled the ongoing war of words between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. These correspondences, popularized by the well-known Broadway musical Hamilton, led to the now infamous duel in 1804.

A total of twelve exhibitions will be presented during Fenimore’s 2019 season alongside its impressive collections of fine art, folk art, and Native American art on view throughout the year. These collections include The Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, which was exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017.

The season opens April 2 with six exhibitions including Elephant & Piggie in WE ARE ART! (A Mo Willems Exhibition), (April 2–May 15, 2019).Mo Willems’s best-selling, award-winning early reader series features best friends Elephant Gerald and Piggie, who are ready to hit the road in a special touring exhibition organized by The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. The exhibition features a selection of original illustrations from all twenty-five Elephant and Piggie books.

The year is highlighted by the exhibition Herb Ritts: The Rock Portraits (April 2–September 2, 2019). Known for his elegant and minimalist work, photographer Herb Ritts (1952–2002) had a gift for turning stars into icons. In Herb Ritts: The Rock Portraits, the first collection of the photographic portraits of musicians, visitors will see how he captured the likes of David Bowie, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Madonna—the world’s biggest music stars—and in the process, helped define their iconic status for generations of fans. The exhibition, on loan from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, presents many of his best-known portraits and some of the costumes and instruments used by the artists featured in the exhibition.

In May, explore the confluence of William Sidney Mount’s (1807–1868) music and art through nearly twenty-five oil paintings, pencil drawings, musical instruments, and related objects in the exhibition Perfect Harmony: The Musical Art & Life of William Sidney Mount (May 25–September 8, 2019), on loan from the Long Island Museum.

To close out our season, Fenimore presents Heroines of Abstract Expressionism (September 19–December 31, 2019)The Abstract Expressionist movement is best known by its male superstars, but women were also pioneers of the genre. This exhibition, drawn from the Friedman collection, showcases the work of artists such as Lee Krasner, Elaine DeKooning, Perle Fine, Joan Mitchell, and others—women whose artwork is finding long overdue acclaim and new appreciation with a contemporary audience.

“Fenimore is always about the mix,” said Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio, Fenimore Art Museum President and CEO. “We showcase a lot of great art with an exciting variety under one roof. This is a season everyone will enjoy.”

Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art Thaw Gallery and Great Hall

The Coopers of Cooperstown Cooper Room

Fine Art from the Permanent Collection American Painting Gallery

American Memory: Recalling the Past in Folk Art Main Gallery

About Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions.